


Knights of Revenge

by supercalvin



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Based on a Tumblr Post, Fluff and Humor, Humor, M/M, Pining Arthur, Pre-Slash, Revenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-02
Updated: 2016-10-02
Packaged: 2018-08-19 00:45:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8182447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/supercalvin/pseuds/supercalvin
Summary: Arthur found that he didn’t just like Merlin for his skills as a personal trainer, but he was starting to have those butterfly-in-stomach kinds of feelings about Merlin. Said feelings were inappropriate for three reasons: 1. As Arthur’s personal trainer sometimes Merlin’s job entailed very intimate positions and during those times Arthur’s thoughts were not appropriate for a professional environment, 2. Merlin would probably lose his job if he dated a client, and 3. Merlin was dating someone else.Or: Merlin's Ex Is Holding His Belongings Hostage And Arthur Decides to Do Something About It.





	

As Arthur packed his gym bag, making sure he packed socks this time as well as his lime green water bottle, he wondered if Merlin would be late to their session. It was a tossup when it came to Merlin. Despite Merlin’s consistent tardiness, Arthur still came back to him time and time again because Merlin was good at what he did (not that Arthur would ever tell him that to his face). Arthur found that he didn’t just like Merlin for his skills as a personal trainer, but he was starting to have those butterfly-in-stomach kinds of feelings about Merlin. Said feelings were inappropriate for three reasons: 1. As Arthur’s personal trainer sometimes Merlin’s job entailed very intimate positions and during those times Arthur’s thoughts were not appropriate for a professional environment, 2. Merlin would probably lose his job if he dated a client, and 3. Merlin was dating someone else.

When Arthur arrived at Avalon Recreation Studio, Merlin wasn’t there, but since Arthur’s session wasn’t for another ten minutes and he was the first appointment of the day, that wasn’t too shocking. Thirty minutes later, Arthur was starting to get concerned that Merlin had forgotten the session or he had run into some trouble.

A few minutes later and half and hour into Arthur’s two-hour-session, Merlin arrived.

“ _ Will _ . He’s my best mate and Lord bless him, but I fucking hate him.” Merlin announced as he stomped into the studio. His blue track jacket was open, flapping by his sides, his black Avalon shirt was wrinkled, and his collar stood up as if he had put it on and not cared to check. His hair was normal but that meant the thick black locks were curled in every direction.

“Er.” Arthur replied eloquently.

“Yes I know you’re going to make fun of me for being late.” Merlin made a pompous face, and then said, in a good impression of Arthur’s posh accent, “ _ ’Merlin, you’re thirty-two minutes and eighteen seconds late. Surely that’s a record for you.’ _ ” Arthur had to admit, that would be something he would say.

“You know why I’m late?” Merlin threw up his hands. “I woke up on my friend’s floor- not his sofa because this body-” Merlin gestured to his long limbs, in a great impression of a dangling octopus. “-doesn’t work on a teeny-tiny sofa that I swear has mold stuffed into the cushions. At some point in the night I fell off the damned thing and I didn’t wake up to my alarm, did I? Oh no, I did not. I woke up to a chicken.”

Merlin gestured in front of him. Arthur looked down at the padded gym floor, trying to imagine a chicken clucking at him.

Merlin did not explain anymore.

“A chicken?” Arthur asked.

“Yes.”

“A live one?” Arthur asked, needing clarification.

“Yes.”

“This flat. Is it in the city?”

“Yes.”

“So… why…?”

“I don’t know. I don’t fucking know, Arthur.” Merlin ran a hand through his hair, and that explained the odd ruffles at the back of his neck where his fingers were trailing now. “But it’s adding on top of the very annoying fact that I don’t have half my things. I had to use whatever the hell Will uses as deodorant and now I smell like ‘ _ Mountain Man Musk and Fresh Timber _ .’” Merlin sniffed his shirt and wrinkled his nose. “I just want my things. My electric toothbrush. My comb.”

“You own a comb?”

“Shut it, pratface.” Merlin pointed a finger at him.

Arthur held up his hands, placating.

“Mind, I don’t have that many things I truly care about. I can buy another pair of socks, but it’s the personal things you know? I need the blanket my mum quilted and I don’t know where Aithusa is and I know it’s dumb but I’m afraid he’s thrown her out.”

“Aithusa? That’s not a pet, is it?”

“No, not a pet. My…It’s a stuffed dragon, alright? I know I’m a grown man, but it’s important. My dad gave it to me.” Merlin pouted, his lower lip jutting out. Arthur had the urge to comfort Merlin, especially when he pouted his lips like that. Instead Arthur went over the conversation and found himself very confused.

“Wait I’m sorry, can we back this rant up a second?” Arthur said. “I think I missed the bit about why you don’t have any of your things or why you’re staying with Will.”

Merlin looked up from where he was rummaging in his bag and produced a water bottle. “Hm? Oh. Remember how I told you I was moving out of my old place because it was uninhabitable?”

“Yeah. And I said I was slightly concerned about your choice of living. You could have had black mold, Merlin.”

Merlin continued as if not hearing, using the bottle for emphasis. “Well I couldn’t find another place and Julius, said I could stay with him until I found a place. Now I think he just thought I would be ready for him whenever he wanted sex.” Merlin snorted.

Arthur didn’t like the sound of that. “What happened?”

“Asshat cheated on me.”

“Oh. Fuck, Merlin that’s just shit.” Arthur’s hands twitched. He wanted to pull Merlin into a hug and tell him it was alright, and that no one should ever cheat on him, because he was worth every drop of attention anyone could give. His hands were also grabby because he wanted to smack around this ‘Julius’ bloke.

“Yeah,” Merlin said, his irritated tone making his voice deep. “I walked in on them on and...oh how shall I put this?” Merlin tapped his chin and then said, in a mocking voice, “Oh, I know! He and the other half-naked man were snogging like a pair  _ cheating cheaters who cheat _ .” Merlin scoffed. “Can you believe that the first thing he said was ‘You weren’t supposed to be back until five.’ Yeah, like that was the problem with this situation. I swear I just don't understand it. The cheating. It’s just wretched.”

“Preaching to the choir.” Arthur muttered. Most people had bad luck if they were cheated on once in their life. Arthur had the great misfortune of having several relationships end that way. (Valiant a few years back and then Sophia when he was in university. Plus Vivian, if he were to count the fact that she  _ suspiciously  _ got together with a man the day after she broke up with him.)

“Sorry to hear that.” Merlin said. His eyes were softer than the fiery anger of before.

His eyes looked over Arthur, and the scrutiny was too much for Arthur. He thought he should be the one comforting Merlin, so he said. “He’s a dick, yeah? Forget about him.”

Merlin waved his hand and gave a sigh, “Already forgotten. Didn’t like him that much, but I was so desperate for a place to live that I moved into the Ashkanar Apartments with him. It was better than Will’s. That was my second option. Which Plan B is not panning out too well.”

“Ashkanar? Those shitty apartments in the west side of town? Seriously, Merlin?”  For anyone interested in buying a new flat in Camelot, the Ashkanar Apartments were the worst place in town. The only reason anyone heard about them were the horror stories about someone’s friend’s second cousin who lived there for a few weeks. Ashkanar was dirty, no one knew if the building actually had a landlord, and despite having fifteen floors, it lacked a lift.  Rumors were that there were gas leaks everywhere and walking up the stairs was a perilous trek because random floorboards would give way to a drop that was the height of the building.

“I know, I know, alright?” Merlin sighed. “I just needed a place to stay for a bit and then this happened and now I’m here: a chicken alarm clock, with barely any of my personal possessions, and I just ranted another ten minutes of your appointment away.”

“Hey.” Arthur grabbed Merlin’s hand and pulled him down on the bench next to him. Merlin slumped by his side and Arthur wrapped his arm around Merlin’s shoulder. “It’ll be alright. You will figure it out. You can be rather smart when you want to be.”

“Careful, Arthur. That was almost a compliment.” Merlin gave a half smile.

Arthur snorted and gruffly ruffled Merlin’s hair. Merlin squawked and batted him away. “Come on, you can do your job and finish the rest of this session.”

Arthur stood up and held out his hand. Merlin smiled as he took the hand. Arthur considered that a victory.

Since Arthur had already done most of his workout while he had waited, Merlin helped with the cool down. Then there came the worst part: the stretching. Workout stretches in the beginning were fine because Merlin didn’t do much except tell Arthur which stretches to do and clapped his hands when Arthur wasn’t putting enough effort into the lunges. But the after-workout-stretches were the worst, especially on leg day because Merlin was essentially massaging Arthur’s legs as he told Arthur to spread his thighs wider or talked casually as he pressed Arthur’s knee to his chest. The cold showers in the locker room were  _ not _ fun.

Arthur let out a heavy breath when Merlin slapped his knee and said they were done for the day.

Arthur took a long drink from his water bottle as Merlin looked through his folders and client information. Arthur stuffed his towel in his bag and hefted it on his shoulder.

“Hey” Arthur patted Merlin’s shoulder. “I hope you figure out what to do with the whole, asshole ex thing.”

Merlin gave a little smile. “Thanks.” He let out a sigh, his fringe moving a bit with the motion. “But do you know the worst bit? I was so worked up that I just grabbed a duffle bag, jammed a bunch of random shit in there, and slammed the door. I just  _ had _ to make my dramatic exit, didn’t I? And when I texted him to see if I could come get my stuff he just said” Merlin paused to make a deep voice that sounded particularly stupid. “‘Left it here, didn’t ya? Now it’s mine.’ I mean who does that?”

“A cheating dickwad?” Arthur supplied.

“A cheating dickwad.” Merlin confirmed.

“You’ll think of something.” Arthur said. Merlin shrugged, looking like he didn’t have the right cards to play. Arthur thought what Merlin needed was backup before he went back to that asshole’s place. But honestly, he shouldn’t need to go over there at all because this Julius should have given over his stuff in the first place.

“I’ll see you next week, yeah?” Merlin said.

Arthur waved goodbye to him, the spark of an idea already in his mind.

***

That evening Arthur sat at his laptop, tapping absentmindedly at the metal surface. He was staring at the tabs he had opened on his browser: the address of Ashkanar Apartments was open on one tab and his email on the other. The cursor blinked at him as he thought about whether or not this was a good idea. Then he thought about Merlin, clever and gorgeous Merlin, who didn’t deserve to be cheated on ever. He gathered his courage and searched his inbox for the email he needed.

A couple weeks back Merlin had sent out an email about not being able to make any of his sessions the next day because his cat was sick, but he had forgotten to blind carbon copy the recipients, so Arthur had been able to see all his other clients. The only reason Arthur had remembered the incident was because he had sent back an email to Merlin about it, teasing him for not being able to properly send an email (and wishing Killi well). He had received a very funny response which consisted of a lot of exclamation points and “Do you think Gaius will fire me for accidentally sending out personal information!?!” Arthur laughed and sent back “I won’t tell, if you won’t.”

Arthur copied the emails (recognizing Leon’s email as one of them) and started a new message. He cracked his knuckles, “Alright.” He took in a breath and typed out his message:

_ Hello, _

_ You don’t know me, but I’m one of Merlin Emrys’ clients at Avalon. Not sure if he mentioned it to anyone else, but he let slip that his asshole of a boyfriend (now ex) cheated on him and said-asshole is now withholding Merlin’s things at his apartment.  Now that’s not very fair, is it? So I’m thinking about going down to this bloke’s flat and getting Merlin’s stuff back. Perhaps with a side of intimidation. A bit of payback, if you will. _

_ Email me if you’re interested. _

_ Arthur Pendragon _

_ apendragon@camelot.com _

***

Within two days, all of Merlin’s clients responded.

Leon was the first to answer, with a positive and a very nasty (well, for Leon at least) comment about asshole-boyfriend. Then he asked if Arthur would like to come over to watch the football game later and Arthur texted back a response instead of email.

A man named Percival responded next. His email gave Arthur a smile.  “Who would ever cheat on Merlin??? Count me in. No way is he getting away with that.”

Arthur was surprised to see that Lance was one of the emails on the list (he hadn’t recognized him as  gryffin@gmail.com ). All Arthur knew about him was that he was Gwen’s boyfriend. Arthur had only met him a few times when he was over at Morgana and Gwen’s flat. Lance had mentioned that he had known Merlin since uni, so it wasn’t a surprise when he said that he knew about Merlin’s situation. He said he was definitely coming along, and his only complaint was that he hadn’t thought of it first.

A man by the name of Gwaine responded next simply with: “A chance to cause some trouble and do a good deed for good ole Merlin? Hell yeah, I’ll be there.” Arthur wasn’t sure what to deduce from that, so he let it be and went back to scroll through his emails.

The last response came from a man named Elyan (whose name Arthur recognized as Gwen’s brother, but he had never actually met the man. According to Gwen he was constantly working, though no one knew what he did for a living.) He responded with two words which were oddly ominous. “I’m in.”

Arthur sent all the details in an email to all the valiant heroes.

***

When Saturday afternoon rolled around, the first to arrive at Arthur’s flat was Leon. They chatted as they waited for the others to show up. Next was Lance, who was very enthusiastic about helping Merlin and getting a bit of revenge. Arthur had always seen Lance with Gwen and had thought he was always like the love-struck puppy but it was clear that the man had a devious streak in him.

Next arrived Percival, who Arthur was shocked to see. The man was huge and he would be the perfect intimidation factor in their scheme. He shook Arthur’s hand and softly said “It’s nice to meet you.” Arthur changed his mind on the whole intimidation thing. At least he looked the part before he said hello and gave your those puppy-dog eyes.

“So you all work with Merlin?” Percival asked.

Lance answered, “Yeah, he’s a good friend of mine. I’ve known him since he was getting his kinesiology degree in uni. He’s been helping me with my martial artist training ever since.”

Percival looked up to Arthur and Leon, as if asking their stick in it.

Leon answered, “I’m in the army so I only train with Merlin when I’m home.”

Arthur rolled his eyes. “He’s being modest, don’t believe him. He’s the Captain of a Special Ops team.”

Leon pointed back at him, “Says my former Lieutenant.”

“Morgana mentioned you were in the army.” Lance said to Arthur, “Why’d you leave?”

“Ah, I was never in it for a career.” Arthur said, “I’m happy with running the family company and not being ordered to do fifty pushups at random times.”

Leon muttered, “One time,” But Arthur ignored him.

Arthur nodded to Percival “What do you do?”

Percival shifted on his feet, “I’m a student. Camelot Uni.”

“Jesus, how old are you?”

“Nineteen.”

“Oh. Well then. Good to have you here…” Arthur eyed him. He definitely didn’t look nineteen. He was the size of a lorry.

“Rugby scholarship.” Percival answered the unasked question.

“Ah.” Arthur nodded, as did Leon and Lance.

There was a knock at the door and when Arthur opened it, a man with long hair and a beard sauntered in.

“So what’s the plan, mates?” He said, automatically sitting on Arthur’s counter. Arthur glared at him but he didn’t move.

“You must be Gwaine.” Arthur said.

“Aye, that’s me.” Gwaine said. “Merlin’s a genius. He’s been helping me win rounds like no one else. If someone’s being a dick to him, then I’m willing to give a punch or two.”

“Rounds?” Percival asked.

“Boxing.” Gwaine said as he put his finger to his lips. “But you didn’t hear that from me. I fight clean but the betting on the side isn’t exactly legal. Anyways, Merls knows what he’s doing and he’s a good bloke. I hate to see him unhappy. So when do we get going to this asshole’s place? I want to give him a little roughing up for Merlin’s sake.”

“We’re waiting for one more,” Arthur said  just as a knock sounded at the door.

Arthur let Elyan in and introduced him to the group of men gathered in his kitchen. Eylan waved at the motley crew, and it appeared the only person he knew was Lance. No one had time to ask Eylan about his own stake in it, because as soon as he arrived Gwaine hopped down from the counter, rubbing his hands together deviously. “Alright, let’s go get Merlin’s shit!”

They squeezed into Leon’s truck, which was rather large but looked like a clown car with all six muscle men stuffed in the cab.

It wasn’t until they arrived that they figured out that they had an idea, but not a plan. They looked up at the Ashkanar Apartments, which appeared to be leaning to one side, and then at Arthur who was grasping at a vague hope of asking someone where ‘Julius Borden’ lived.

“I got this. Wait here.” Eylan said and walked into the apartment complex and then came back out five minutes later with a slip of paper. “Got his flat number, let’s go.”

Arthur looked around at the other men, but none of them looked like they were going to ask Eylan how he did it, so he just shrugged his shoulders. “Alright, grab the bags, we’re going in.”

The six of them made their way to the seventh floor, seeing (and smelling) that the Ashkanar Apartments lived up to their expectations.

At Flat 709, Arthur turned to look at his group. They were an intimidating bunch. At the front was Arthur, whose broad shoulders took up the entire doorway. To his left were Leon and Lance who looked like ticked-off bouncers at a club. To Arthur’s right were Gwaine, looking like he was ready to uppercut anyone who looked at him too long, and Eylan, who had a hard piercing stare that said he meant business. The backdrop was Percival, his sheer size making him easy to spot and hard to forget.

Arthur smiled, “Ready?”

They all nodded.

Arthur knocked on the door, and wasn’t surprised when he heard someone yell “Who the fuck is that?”

Instead of answering, Arthur decided to just bang on the door harder.

The door flew open, “What in fuck’s sake are you-”

The man, who must have been Julius Borden, was cut off when he saw all of the men at the door. He scanned over all of them, and first impressions must have been a shocker for him.

Arthur smiled at him, knowing that he didn’t look at all friendly when he said, “We’re here to pick up Merlin’s things.”

The door slammed in his face.

Arthur sighed and then raised his voice just enough for Borden to hear him through the door. “Either you open the door, or we break it down.”

He waited a few seconds, and then he heard the lock unclick. Arthur didn’t wait for Borden to open the door. Instead he grabbed the handle and pushed it open, not caring when he heard Borden trip and curse as the door slammed into him. The rest of the crew followed. Arthur distributed a garbage bag to each man, “Grab what you can find.”

Borden must have gotten over his shock because he stomped up to Arthur and said, “Who the hell do you think you are? You can’t just come into my flat and just start- Hey! Put that down!”

Arthur had to hold in a laugh as he saw Percival lifting up an entire armchair. The young man raised a brow at Borden before he flipped it upside and set it back down on the floor. Well, he did set it down, as Borden had asked.

“Sorry. Thought I saw one of Merlin’s shirts.” Percival said, although no one believed that for a second.

The rest spread out across the apartment while Eylan joined Percival in his quest to upend every piece of furniture in Borden’s lounge. Borden looked about ready to burst a vein, but he didn’t dare move an inch.

Leon popped his head out from down the hall, holding an electric toothbrush. “Found Merlin’s bath stuff. Does anyone actually know what else we’re looking for?”

Lance raised his hand, his phone in his fingertips. “Texted Merlin without letting on about the plan.”

“Let me see”

Lance showed Arthur his latest messages.

_ Merlin: Don’t text me puns Lance. I’m in enough pain rn _

_ Lance: That was wit at its finest. I’m wasted on you. _

_ Merlin: Was not. You’re the worst. _

_ Lance: Did you lose your sense of humor at your ex’s? _

_ Merlin: Haha im dying of laughter. smartass. Not funny. I left half my clothes in his ugly-ass dresser and I have no socks! How is a PT supposed to work without socks? And what am I supposed to do without my mum’s quilt? She’ll murder me Lance!! MURDER. And I fucking hate the idea of him using my magic mug!! He doesn’t deserve it! He doesn’t even deserve my crappy radio. _

_ Lance: Jesus you still have that thing? _

Arthur handed the phone back to Lance, “It’s not much but it’s something. Do you think you can gather up those things?”

“On it.” Lance said, already going to the kitchen, probably looking for Merlin’s magic mug. Whatever that was.

Arthur made his way to the bedroom and found a lime green dresser, which he assumed stored Merlin’s clothes. Shuffling through the drawers he tried to find anything that looked like it belonged to Merlin. Even if it didn’t, he tossed it into his bag anyways because he didn’t really care if Borden had enough shirts or not. As he shuffled through the drawers some of the other men came in and out of the bedroom, some shouting out when they found something or asking Arthur if he had another bag. Sometimes there was a protest from Borden but he never got very far before he shut up.

Arthur grabbed Merlin’s alarm clock (unplugging anything in the flat he could find along the way) and stuffed a couple of books that he figured belonged to Merlin (he doubted they were Borden’s). At the back of the closet he also found a stuffed white dragon, tinged with age, which Arthur assumed was Aithusa. He grabbed it and made his way back to the lounge.

The flat was a sight to behold. Percival was stuffing a quilt into his garbage bag while sitting on the sofa, which was turned upside down. Leon was giving Borden a talking to that would have made any soldier cry. Lance was sitting on the kitchen counter eating a sandwich and drinking out of a mug that read ‘Magic!’ in rainbow colors. Eylan had somehow made it to the very top of the bookshelf and was watching over the entire thing like it was his domain. Then there was Gwaine.

He was sitting at the dining table with his feet kicked up, looking like he was having the time of his life. When Arthur caught his eye, he gave him a lazy salute and then went back to the assortment on the table. In one hand he held a switchblade, and from his collection Gwaine picked up a condom and slashed the foil and rubber all in one go. He picked up the next one and repeated the stroke.

When Borden looked at Gwaine, he had wide eyes, as if he was looking at a mad man.

Gwaine gave a carefree smile. “Wouldn’t use those, mate. Look a bit defective.” He slashed another condom and tossed it in the pile. When Gwaine looked at the lube, he read the back and said, “This is nice lube” Then he pocketed it.

Arthur looked around the room and raised his voice, “Have everything?” He asked the six men. A chorus of affirmatives rang out. Arthur nodded, “Then let’s leave his shit place.”

They filed out, each glaring at Borden as they walking out the doorway. Last to go was Gwaine who leaned in close to Borden “Have a nice one, mate.” He gave a friendly tap to Borden’s face, followed by another few that were more like slaps. Borden swayed a bit with the last slap. Arthur had to hold in a laugh as Gwaine sauntered off with a swing in his hips.

Arthur herded them out and they ran down to Leon’s truck and tossed their loot into the truck bed. Cramming into the truck once again, they couldn’t help the laughing and hollering as they drove away, like pirates after a victorious battle.

The next stop was Will’s flat (address happily provided by Lance). The men were beaming as they tumbled out of the truck and grabbed their bags. For the second time that day they all huddled around an apartment door, this time with their hands full and ready to deliver. 

Arthur knocked at the door and waited.

A man who was not Merlin opened the door and glared at Arthur. He eyed the group of men.

“Must be for Merlin.” The man turned his head and called out loudly. “Merlin! Door’s for you!”

“No it’s not, you twat! I’m not falling for that again.” Merlin’s voice came from inside the flat.

“Yes it is! You know more muscle men than I do and there’s a fuck ton here. I swear if you ordered a bunch of male strippers just to spite me for the other day!”

“I saw things I never wanted to see Will! I can’t erase what I saw!” Merlin’s voice was shrill.

“Still not my fault!”

“You know what…” Merlin appeared at the door, wearing jeans and a loose hoodie. Merlin’s eyes widened when he caught sight of the group outside the flat, “Arthur?”

“Hey, Merlin.” Arthur gave a smile.

Merlin quickly pushed Will aside and stepped outside the flat, closing the door on Will’s protests. Merlin wrapped his arms around himself as he looked at the motley crew in front of him. “What are all of you doing here?”

Leon cleared his throat. “We heard what happened.”

Gwaine pipped in “Thought we might give you a hand.”

“Best trainer in town deserves better than that.” Percival said with a small smile.

Merlin’s brows were pulled together and he looked towards Elyan, who was a straightforward kind of bloke. “We got your shit back from your ex.”

Merlin’s mouth fell open. “What?”

Lance stepped forward, “Have a look.” He opened up the bag to reveal a pile of Merlin’s clothes. Under Percival’s arm was his mum’s quilt. Gwaine was caring the good lube he had snagged and Lance held up Merlin’s mug in triumph. Another bag had half of Borden’s bathroom in it, along with Merlin’s electric toothbrush and comb.

To Arthur’s amusement there was also a bag with a lamp which he didn’t think was Merlin’s, a bunch of canned food, three flashlights, a ton of pens, and a phone charger which Arthur knew didn’t work for Merlin’s phone.

Arthur held out Aithusa to Merlin, whose eyes became very wide as he reached out for the stuffed toy.

_ “How did you even…?”  _ Merlin gaped as he clutched Aithusa to his chest.

“Arthur emailed us.” Lance said, “We went over there and grabbed your stuff for you.”

Merlin looked to Arthur, “You did that for me?”

Arthur felt the heat in his chest and tried to play it off easy, though that was hard when Merlin’s soft eyes looked at him like that. “Don’t be daft, Merlin. Of course we did.”

Arthur watched as Merlin looked between all six men and the various bags in front of him. Then his eyes started to water. He sniffed and before anyone knew what to do, tears were rolling down Merlin’s face.

Arthur panicked, his heart racing as he watched Merlin struggle with trying not to cry.

“Shit, sorry.” Merlin looked embarrassed as he hiccupped and tears rolled down his cheek. Arthur lifted his hands, not knowing what to do with them. Then he decided to step forward and settle his hand on Merlin’s back, rubbing between his shoulder blades awkwardly.

“Oh, Merls, it’s alright.” Gwaine said, his tone sincere. “He was just an asshole.”

“Other fish in the sea, right?” Leon added.

Merlin shook his head wiping his eyes with the sleeve of his hoodie. “No it’s not that. I really don’t care about that idiot. Fuck, sorry, I cry at anything, I swear. You should see me when I watch films. I’m not sad, I’m just so touched...You are just so lovely for doing that for me.” Merlin looked over at Arthur as he said it, and Arthur’s heart swelled. Merlin leaned into Arthur’s arm and curled in so that his face was buried in the crook of Arthur’s neck.  Arthur wasn’t going to lie, he was really enjoying it. He had planned the revenge mission because he wanted to right a wrong, but damn this was a wonderful bonus.

Merlin wiped his face and then pulled the other men in for a proper group hug. They all squished together in the middle of the hallway as Merlin sniffled. After a while of Merlin-in-the-Middle it became awkward. After all, they were a bunch of muscle men, as Will had called them, and they weren’t very good with emotion overload.  They all broke apart and shuffled their feet as Merlin wiped his eyes and looked at the group of men.

There was a long pause.

“So…” Percival cleared his throat, “Nandos?"

**Author's Note:**

> If your on tumblr, you've probably come across this [Revenge Story Post](http://throwtime.tumblr.com/post/124975825468/throwtime-im-about-to-have-a-fun-afternoon) which is super hilarious and I'm so glad it exists. Also, Merlin would 100% be the one to inadvertently bring the knights together and then let Arthur lead them (that's what happened in canon anyways).  
>  ♥ Thanks for reading ♥


End file.
